ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries June 1 9 9 4 /3 7 3 Washington Hotline Carol C. H enderson Library funding effort T he cam p a ig n sp e a rh e a d e d by four congressional library cham p io n s to m aintain fu n d ­ ing fo r federal library p ro ­ gram s got off to a g o o d start d u r i n g N a t i o n a l L ib r a r y W eek in April. Reps. Major O w e n s (D -NY), Ja c k Reed (D-RI), P at W illiams (D-MT), a n d D a le K ild e e (D -M I) a s k e d th e i r c o lle a g u e s to s ig n a jo in t le t t e r to th e H o u se A p p ro p riatio n s S ub­ com m ittee o n Labor, H ealth an d H u m an Services, a n d E ducation. T h e letter urges th e su b co m m ittee to m ain tain su p p o rt for e a c h o f th e currently fu n d e d library p r o gram s (in clu d in g H igher E d ucation Act title II) at a level in FY95 at least e q u a l to FY94— $146,309,000. O b ta in in g co m m itm en ts to sign th e letter w as a m ajor action item for th e 500 library s u p p o rte rs w h o v isited co n g ressio n al offices o n April 19, Library Legislative Day. As o f April 25, 57 H o u se m e m b e rs h ad sig n ed o n — a g o o d start, b u t m o re w o rk w a s u n d erw ay . Since th e H o u se fu n d in g su b co m m ittee w a s sc h e d u le d to m a k e its reco m m e n d a tio n s s o o n after Me m orial D ay, th e cam p a ig n will b e co m p le te d by th e tim e this co lu m n reach es readers. M eeting w ith the president “G ive libraries m o re m o n e y — n o t less— so they can bu y m ore b o o k s a n d c o m p u te rs a n d m ore p e o p le can g e t sm arter.” T hat w as th e m essag e d eliv ered by nin e-y ear-o ld A lexandria Jo h n s o n in a visit w ith P resident C linton o n April 22. She w a s ac c o m p a n ie d by h e r m o th er, Eliza b eth Jo h n s o n , ALA p re s id e n t H ardy Franklin, a n d ALA e x e c u tiv e d ire c to r P eggy Sullivan. A lexandria’s statem en t a b o u t h o w th e library c h a n g e d h e r life w as se le c te d as o n e o f the th ree m o st in spirational from m o re th a n 10,000 letters receiv ed d u rin g the first y ear o f ALA’s “Libraries C hange Lives” cam paign. Franklin p re s e n te d a p e n b earin g the m e s sage “D o th e W rite T hing for Libraries!” a n d u r g e d th e p r e s id e n t to r e s to r e th e a d m in istration’s p r o p o s e d cuts in library funding. H e Carol C. Henderson is executive director o f ALA's Washington Office; e-mail.cch@alawash.org ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ n o te d th a t fed eral fu n d in g for libraries co m e s to only a b o u t 57 cents p e r cap ita— th e cost o f th e p en . Franklin d escrib ed th e P re s id e n t’s re ­ a c tio n as “sy m p ath etic but n o n c o m m itta l.” H earing on lib raries an d the Nil Library Legislative D ay p a r­ ticip an ts sw elled th e o v e r­ flow cro w d at th e April 19 hearin g b y th e Senate Sub­ c o m m itte e o n E d u c a tio n , rts a n d th e H u m an ities o n Libraries a n d T heir ole in th e Inform ation Infrastructure. Sen. Paul im on (D -Ill.) ch aired th e h e a rin g a n d said: “Li­ raries can p ro v id e su c h things as access, e d u ­ atio n a n d training, navigation, archiving, an d ataloging o f inform ation o n th e su p erh ig h w ay n a u n iq u e w ay .” Sim on com m itted h im self to e e k in g w ay s to h e lp librarians d o this. Librar­ ans from across th e country testified a b o u t w h at ervices in th e ir libraries w e re e n h a n c e d by lec tro n ic d ata transm ission, an d w h y su p p o rt­ ve federal policy a n d assistance w e re n e e d e d . Librarian o f C ongress Ja m e s B illington testi­ ied, fo llo w e d by a n im p re ssiv e te c h n o lo g y e m o n s tra tio n o f LC’s In tern et capabilities, the C MARVEL system , a n d im age scan n in g an d ro cessin g ; J e a n n e H urley Sim on, ch air o f the .S. N ational C om m ission o n Libraries a n d In ­ o rm ation Science, also testified. R epresenting LA w e re p re s id e n t H ardy F ranklin, d irecto r f th e D.C. Public Library, a n d A gnes Griffen, ire c to r o f th e M ontgom ery C ounty P ublic Li­ raries, Rockville, Maryland. Franklin a p p e n d e d o m m e n ts from librarians a n d o th e rs co m p iled n re s p o n se to a call from th e ALA W ashington ffice to su b m it inform ation electronically for h e h ea rin g record. ublic interest sum m it on Nil P ublic In terest Sum m it called “Shaping the ational In fo rm atio n In frastru ctu re” (N il) w as e ld in W ash in g to n , D.C., o n M arch 29, c o ­ p o n s o re d by th e B e n to n F o u n d a tio n , o th e r o u n d atio n s, a n d th e C linton ad m in istratio n ’s n fo rm a tio n In fra stru c tu re T ask F orce. V ice­ resid en t Al G o re gave th e k e y n o te sp e e c h , o ta b le fo r his a ssu ran ce th at th e N il w o u ld (Washington cont on page 3 76) A R S b c c i s i s e i f d L p U f A o d b c i O t P A N h s f I P n mailto:cch@alawash.org 376/C&RL News articles on health care legislation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the February meeting o f the American Association for the Advancement o f Science. This last piece con­ tained the splendid quote, “The things w e know w e do not know are much more obvious than the things w e think w e know but do not.” The Opinion section contained a commen­ tary by the president o f a biotechnology firm warning scientists that they are taking the government’s health plan “too casually.” A complete list o f the top ten articles o f 1993 was reported in the Research section along with the bibliographic citation, rank, and the num­ ber o f articles that cited them. This ranking was based on the findings by the Institute for Sci­ entific Information’s citation analysis o f research journals for that year. The Tools & Technology section is devoted to announcing and reviewing new laboratory equipment and computer software. Tw o articles on DOE (Design-Of-Experiment) software were in the issue I reviewed. The section probably comes closest to giving the active scientist use­ ful information related to his or her research. A report o f an undergraduate wom en’s sci­ ence study program was the feature article in the Profession section. This section also con­ tained short profiles o f two Alzheimer’s re­ searchers and an obituary. THE SCIENTIST is truly a bargain to those on the Internet. Paper subscriptions cost $58 per year. You don’t get the cartoons or cross­ w ord puzzle but all o f the substance is there. While this is a resource that is obviously de­ signed for the life sciences researcher who wants to be “in the know,” it is also o f value to science undergraduates who sometimes labor under the impression that their chosen field is all facts and figures. For them, I believe, read­ ing THE SCIENTIST will bring a more human and honest picture o f their future workplace. —Jim Rible, Southern Oregon State College E D U C O M G o p h er. Access: gopher:// gopher.educom.edu. EDUCOM, an organization which assists higher education institutions in implementing and managing technology, maintains a gopher server o f resources related to its mission. This gopher will be o f primary interest to college- and university-level librarians, faculty, and administrators, whether or not their insti­ tution maintains a membership in EDUCOM. All o f EDUCOM’s major publications, includ­ ing the EDUCOM Review Magazine, EDUPAGE, and The Update, are available electronically through this gopher. Information on EDUCOM’s special programs, such as the National Learn­ ing Infrastructure Initiative, is included. In ad­ dition, conferences and other events are an­ nounced here. Elementary and secondary teachers and education majors could also ben­ efit from some o f the information. Maintained by staff at EDUCOM who up­ date it at least biweekly, the gopher is a source o f up-to-date information. On the Internet for slightly over one year, EDUCOM Gopher plans no major changes, but future development plans include m oving toward integrating the re­ sources currently located in the gopher into the World Wide W eb (W W W ). EDUCOM Gopher provides links to the CAUSE and CREN gopher services. CAUSE and CREN are other organizations which are also interested in information technology in higher education. This gopher is well-organized and user- friendly. While there is no directory or map o f the gopher, the menu choices are well- worded and point the user in the proper di­ rection. The ease o f retrieving the full text o f articles in EDUCOM publications is a good feature, since the information is posted to the gopher as soon as the publication is issued. One informative publication for busy profes­ sionals is EDUPAGE, a w eekly digest o f tech­ nology issues as they relate to education. The events calendar includes complete contact in­ formation. Through this gopher, much infor­ mation on educational technology can be quickly and easily obtained.— A nn M. Tenglund, St. Bonaventure University ■ (Washington cont. fro m page 373) look more like the Internet than like the mul­ tichannel, video-on-demand model. He indi­ cated the need for safeguards against monopoly control o f the NII, and repeated the admini­ stration’s commitment to connecting educational institutions, libraries, and hospitals. Panels included administration officials to­ gether with representatives o f the nonprofit, education, and library communities. One panel included Jean Armour Polly, director o f user services for NYSERNET in N ew York State, and a public library Internet pioneer. Other panel­ ists mentioned libraries as information provid­ ers and access points repeatedly. ■ 373.pdf Pages from NO.6.pdf